Morning Glory: Destination
by Morbane
Summary: This 'fic began as a semispoof of the Ash and Misty secret agent theme... then it began to take itself seriously. Significantly AU. Misty rules Johto, and Kanto calls to mind '1984'...
1. Bulletproof

Disclaimer: Pokémon, that wonderful addiction, isn't mine. Thank you. *Thank you*.  
  
This is a Morning Glory fic of mine, and not just the fic is mine, but also the Morning Glory idea. If you want to borrow it (unlikely as that is) you have to ask me. Fair enough?  
  
Most of the main characters are in here somewhere, twisted and warped though they are. I try to give cameos to everyone you know well. K?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Azalea Town, Johto  
  
  
  
"And... now!" hissed Misty, watching the scene on the dock with narrowed eyes.  
  
  
  
Her Mantine, receiving the signal via a radio collar, dove in front of the man and wrenched the gun from his arms. Five wingbeats and it was far up in the sky. It sang back at her - "your cue".  
  
  
  
Painting a tough grin onto her face - the one that people saw - the Water Princess of Morning Glory stepped out of her hiding place and towards the criminal. "You've been monitored for five days, man. Give up."  
  
  
  
The guy drew another gun slowly, pointing it at the center of her chest. "Staryu, come!" she yelled, pressing the marble-sized Pokéball. The gunman shot.  
  
  
  
His bullet hit Misty's chest with the impact of a truck. Not even a bullet- proof vest can save you from this, she thought, going down. Staryu shot a thin jet of water, as focussed as a laser, over her body and into the gun, blowing it apart. The crook went down and stayed down - unlike Misty, who jumped up and handcuffed him.  
  
  
  
I'm going to have one hell of a bruise, she thought, striding past the pain. That didn't matter. Nothing mattered except Morning Glory, of which she was the figurehead. Showing pain would ruin the effect she was aiming for. Team Rocket had no place in Johto and the Water Princess would defend her land in person from them - and maybe that was the true difference between Morning Glory and Team Rocket.  
  
  
  
But Pokégods, she hoped it wasn't the only one.  
  
  
  
The huge old Volvo Estate was waiting just around the corner. "Dump him in the back, Misty," Officer Jenny Seraphina said, pointing to the open boot of the car. The lecture began.  
  
  
  
Mantine and Staryu exchanged meaningful glances as the young police officer harangued her leader. "Misty, you bloody fool! If I'd known that man had one gun, let alone two, I wouldn't have let you in there without two squadrons to back you up. What's going to happen to your 'image' if you're *killed* on one of these missions?"  
  
  
  
"I'm the Pokémon Master, Seraphina," said her passenger. The older woman shut up and stared ahead, her lips tight.  
  
  
  
"Sajen, I didn't mean it that way," said Misty, after a pause. "I meant I can take care of myself! What I learned to become a Master, I haven't forgotten."  
  
  
  
"Does it also occur to you that these missions are a waste of time?"  
  
  
  
"No." Misty said, and the conversation was over.  
  
  
  
The car pulled into Misty's office block and the Master hopped out. "Misty, have some faith." Said the Officer Jenny, as she drove away.  
  
  
  
Misty sighed, pulling out a key and letting herself into her office/apartment complex. No one understood why she did the kinds of things she did.  
  
  
  
Just yesterday, she had been treated to an hour of scolding from, *surprise*, her part-time secretary. Somehow, Suzie seemed to feel personally affronted by the fact that Misty allowed anyone at all to have an interview with her. But why shouldn't she? This was a democracy, or at least it would be as long as she was in charge. MORNING GLORY, at least, would respond to people's needs... She had to make people feel heard... She had to embody, *be*, the difference between Kanto and Johto...  
  
  
  
"Misty, everyone knows that Morning Glory is way better than Team Rocket and you don't have to hand out cups of... of... coffee to every lunatic who wants to inflate their ego by sitting around in your office!" Suzie had screamed yesterday, and nearly quit.  
  
  
  
After Misty had offered to shorten her two visitor days and raise Suzie's salary, the young Pokémon breeder had calmed down.  
  
  
  
"Water Princess, it is not the money. And to hell with your visitor days, you see people at *their* convenience whatever I try to do. You are, just, the most exasperating client I have ever had." A deep sigh.  
  
  
  
Misty then had bent down and offered an apologetic hand to Suzie's Vulpix, who sat cowering at the side of Suzie's desk. As if by magic, a little bite-sized Vulpix-treat appeared in that hand, and Vulpix took it with a little purr of relief.  
  
  
  
Suzie laughed raggedly.  
  
  
  
"Have a break tomorrow," Misty had ordered, worried by the exhaustion on her friend's face.  
  
  
  
"Yeah, sure, little mermaid," Suzie coughed. "Think I'll make tonight an early one as well."  
  
  
  
Today her younger brother, Columbus, was on the post with his little Growlithe. Misty gave him a little wave and he gave her the all-clear sign, meaning she had no new obligations.  
  
  
  
Thank the Pokégods.  
  
  
  
"Hey, wait, Master Waterflower," Columbus said.  
  
  
  
"Yes, Columbus?" Couldn't it wait? She needed something to plaster over that incredible bruise -  
  
  
  
"Brock and the others are upstairs, waiting for you."  
  
  
  
"Thanks, Columbus," Misty sighed. Now that he mentioned it, she could hear laughter drifting down the stairs and through the bulletproof glass doors, cracked open. Oh, pokégods, no peace today.  
  
  
  
  
  
-Lavender Town, Kanto  
  
  
  
Her graduation day.  
  
  
  
May strolled along the stage of the Institute of Co-ordinate Health Instruction, last of all her class. She wasn't just graduating; it was with ^magna cum laude^ that she received her diploma and badge of office - the stylised Chansey egg pendant to wear around her wrist. She had topped her class.  
  
  
  
Beside her, Dulcie reached out her arm to touch May's left hand, in which she clutched the chain and egg. May deftly passed it over, receiving in its place her Chansey partner's own pendant - a golden bean, with a little leaf curling up from it.  
  
  
  
Their own pendants looked exactly the same as those of every other graduate standing on the stage, and every other graduate who had ever become a Nurse Joy. But May understood her Pokémon partner's wish to examine their pendants; in this situation she felt, almost as strongly as her Chansey, the desire to touch, smell, see, even taste their success. Glancing towards Dulcie, and the back of the stage, she brought Dulcie's bean towards her mouth and mimed biting down on it. Dulcie's eyes brimmed with laughter.  
  
  
  
Then they reached their place in the line, and stopped - and the clapping began.  
  
  
  
In the crowd, two of May's best friends grinned at each other so brightly that her grandfather was hard pressed not to laugh at their enthusiasm. Each of them was smiling the kind of way that suggested *they'd* done everything it had taken to get May her Nurse Joy diploma. Even worse, knowing those two, that was actually the kind of thought-train running through their minds right now.  
  
  
  
The speeches were over. Chuckling, Professor Oak stood back as the group of new Nurse Joys surged down from the stage, allowing the two boys beside him to reach and congratulate Nurse Joy May Oak first. He slipped a little aside to see Dulcie - it was a failing of his, he knew it, putting Pokémon always before people - but anyway, he drew close to Dulcie and grabbed her paw.  
  
  
  
Aide-Dulcinea bounced round, startled, then gave a happy chirp as she recognise the person who she knew the best, apart from her healing partner May. She turned away from him for a moment, back to May, tucked her head over on one side and regarded May, surrounded by wellwishers; so many people wanted to talk to her that the boys were being pushed away. With a very human "Chaaan," sort of dry remark, she looked up at her secondary trainer and cooed inquisitively again.  
  
  
  
"Nothing much, Dulcie. Just wanted to check on you. You know I never think so much excitement is good for you Chanseys," Oak chatted, bringing out a reader-device that measured emotional broadcast. Even as he spoke, Dulcie's emanations changed from a replica of the crowd's exuberance and oblivious, expansive pride (Chanseys, when not looking after patients, automatically broadcasted a concentrated aura of the emotions surrounding them) to self-aware care and faint humour.  
  
  
  
As if she'd understood what he'd said. And of course, she had.  
  
  
  
"I'll borrow you tonight, okay Dulcie?" he murmured to her, beginning to lead her back to the throng. He *couldn't* spend too much time with her in public. "You know, I think May's going to want to go out to dinner with a few of the other graduates, and I don't think that's the kind of situation you want to be in."  
  
  
  
It was mean of him to separate these two on their graduation night, but the Chansey understood the need. And they could have their own celebration tomorrow. Tonight, he knew, everyone else would want to share in their own part of May's success. Inevitably, it would be their celebration, not hers; May could handle that. He knew her.  
  
  
  
A man walked right through Professor Oak and Dulcie, breaking their hand/paw grip and causing Chansey to squeal softly "Seeycha!" in indignation. Professor Oak found a small pamphlet in his hand, pro-Team Rocket of course, for that was how his 'sentinels' worked. But the man, Ritchie, turned back, his face unusually strained. "Sorry, Oak, Chansey," he said. "I'm in a hurry, I didn't mean to jostle you." He vanished in the crowd almost literally. Professor Oak glanced at the pamphlet curiously.  
  
  
  
Professor Oak got Dulcinea back to May.  
  
  
  
Then he began to feel the onset of terror.  
  
  
  
  
  
-Pallet Town, Johto (The next day)  
  
  
  
May looked at her grandfather, deeply concerned. Between yesterday and today a witty, expert, limited-but-defiant scientist had turned into a tired, pain-shadowed old man.  
  
  
  
"They're coming after me," Professor Oak said quietly.  
  
  
  
"But, Grandfather, WHY?" The young woman was close to tears.  
  
  
  
"May, I have several things to tell you; I don't think all of them will rest easily with you.  
  
  
  
"Firstly, have I ever behaved in a way that was dishonourable, or that made you morally uncomfortable? Haven't I always tried to do my best for the people and Pokémon around me?"  
  
  
  
His granddaughter swallowed. "Well, no, and yes, Grandfather."  
  
  
  
"Do you trust me, May?"  
  
  
  
"Yes."  
  
  
  
"May, I have set myself against Team Rocket, for the cause of freedom that they continue to stamp out. They have become aware of it, and I need your help - yours, and Gary's, and a friend of Gary's', I believe, who might be of use... this would be dangerous, May."  
  
  
  
How young did he think she was? Well, she *had* been close to tears a minute ago.  
  
  
  
Of course she'd known he was against Team Rocket. She'd just never thought that he was doing anything dangerous enough to attract their attention.  
  
  
  
There was a lot of things about him that she didn't know. As there were a lot of things about *her* that he didn't know. Like the fact that she wasn't a kid, or even a teenager anymore. Pushing that aside, she gave him her answer - thinking it should have been obvious to him - maybe it had been, and he had only wanted her to confirm it.  
  
  
  
"I don't really like Team Rocket myself, Grandfather," she said dryly.  
  
  
  
Oak straightened a little, some of the lines on his anxious face released. "May - thank you."  
  
  
  
He breathed in very deeply. "May, here is a floppy disk. I want you to go to the E Core cyber cafe in Saffron this afternoon and speak to Jacques. He will recommend a time for you to come back; by then, the monitor program will have failed and you will be given a manual timer to keep track of how long you spend on the computer. Choose the fifth one from the back, near the vending machine. Also, request the Porygon assistant, "Dataduck". Read the Notepad document first, then follow its instructions. May, be careful."  
  
  
  
May smiled, and kissed her grandfather on the cheek as she took the floppy disk and left. Her wonderful memory, which had served her and her grandfather so well in the years that she had studied, and assisted him in his work, kept replaying, 'Jacques... Dataduck... E Core... fifth from the back... notepad... near the vending machine...'  
  
  
  
She headed to her own apartment first and tidied it, putting her most treasured and necessary belongings in a tidy pile by her bed. She just knew that, soon, she would need them.  
  
  
  
  
  
Now…  
  
  
  
THANK YOU LIGHTNING STRIKE!  
  
You were kind enough to give my Return story (left with zero reviews for weeks) its wonderful first review and besides I like your stories.  
  
THANK YOU NI'KHALI/KARRA!  
  
You're a great author, yet you have time to review my little… umm… fanfics. And you reviewed TWO of them. Hey, that's pretty cool, isn't it.  
  
THANK YOU LIGHT SNEASEL!  
  
You said that my sad, pathetic Eevee's Tale story actually has some social merit (yes, if you're reading it to three year old Pokefanatics, but you were kind enough not to say that).  
  
THANK YOU ANIEVE III!  
  
You reviewed. Isn't that fantastic?!?!  
  
THANK YOU CALYPSO!  
  
You're working on a major undying epic that even has appendices, and you're reviewing my Melting story. The two of those together suggest I REALLY need to thank you. Well, thanks!  
  
THANK YOU ZE DRAGON MISTRESS!  
  
You haven't reviewed my stories yet, but I know you will. Besides, I have to thank you for listening to all my story ideas. You are nicely supportive. Heya!!! Ave soror!!! 


	2. Communication

Well, it's this fic again. I hope you like it… The bit at the end may be confusing but I'll elabourate next chapter. Feel free to flame; if you're comprehensive I may even pay attention. 

MORNING GLORY: DESTINATION by Morbane

-Pallet Town, Kanto (The same day)

That night he had done a lot of pacing. He hadn't felt as out-of-control in the game he was playing since he'd first cast the dice. 

Team Rocket didn't just suspect him. Team Rocket wasn't just watching him. Team Rocket was observing him, noting his experiments, letting him continue with them for the moment because perhaps to them his experiments were useful. Deliberating when to confront him, and ask him to either join them truly or... not. 

For all Professor Oak knew, they could be planning to approach him in the next few days. His contact's uncertainty made that believable. As a matter of fact, Professor Oak doubted that Ritchie could be really reliable to him after this. Ritchie was a fairly devoted Rocketeer and obviously bent a personal code every time he 'helped' Oak - although Oak had tried to convince him logically of the reasons why he *needed* to help him. This time, Oak read, Ritchie had gone beyond his own pales and had probably decided that, the fair warning given, he couldn't-slash-wouldn't help anymore. 

So in Ritchie's case, the Professor was on his own. 

He was going to have to end the game. 

He hadn't thought it would get to this stage again. When they took over, Team Rocket had carefully removed authority from him, and he'd played along, pretending that Team Rocket had well and truly removed his fangs. Obviously, as he had continued to dabble on the side a bit in science, he had expected Team Rocket to keep a suspicious eye on him, the Team's attention waning and waxing according to his actions. 

He hadn't expected them to have kept such a steady watch on him, such a professional and minute observation of what he was doing. The realisation of how much he'd been fooled was probably freaking him out exactly as much as they'd expected. 

Luckily, he was coming to terms with the shock here, not in Team Rocket's 'negotiation' rooms. 

He had an escape route, but he'd need the help of his assistants, and by those he meant the only three people he could trust. They were Ash, Gary, and May. 

-Northwest of Cerulean, Kanto

The Team Rocket Cerulean Institute rose tall above the trees, its white, bright heights reflected in the Azure Lake. It still looked almost new - but then, it was only about forty years old. 

From an island in the middle of the lake, the Institute's top student stared across at the school. And back at his two new Pokémon. Both Natu knew perfectly well that the less able one would be released back into the wild - and both were determined not to be that less able one. Gary wondered if these two were already friends. 

"Fine," he said, throwing up his hands. "I'll keep one of you and give the other to my rival. Happy?"

Both Natu focussed into one place, instead of spinning around in a disconcerting blur. "That's better," Gary said. He had already decided which one to give away. The one with the slightly disobedient grin and the uneven markings - it would get along well with his friend's Pikachu. 

"Return," he called both of them, setting them back on his wrists. "Remoraid?" The young man leapt onto his raft, holding out the rope that Remoraid would pull. 

His Pokégear beeped at him. 

"Okay, okay, okay," Gary muttered, expecting it to be an email from a supervisor, warning him not to go over the excursion time limit of two hours. 

May's email took him completely by surprise. 

Go to the leader of Morning Glory and ask her help... leave Kanto, possibly forever... take Ash, on his discretion... Grandpops? What had happened to him? 

Gary sank to a sitting position, the raft luckily balanced by the nimble Remoraid. For Professor Oak. And for May. 

But to risk his whole life against the Rockets...

-Celadon City, Kanto

It was a rainy day outside Ash's boarding-house window. Inside, the young Pokémon scholar was sitting at a table with his Pikachu, guiding the little Electric's paw across a page. 

"Now how about F?"

Pikachu drew the upper case, lower case and Unown forms of the letter very carefully, and very well. Ash smiled. "Great work, Pikachu!" Pikachu gave Ash a Pokémon smile and began to slowly write a message in his exercise book. 

Turning back to his own notebook, Ash twiddled his pen, trying to think what he should put next. He was trying to write a poem about the rain. So far, it went,

Grey spreads into my room;

my Pokémon smile at its scent. 

The clouds have arrived,

yesterday they came and went -

but today they release their burdens,

and with them the colour, grey,

I wanted to laugh with my Pokémon,

but rain washes my zeal away. 

It didn't really work as a poem, especially as a rhyming one. In fact, it was pathetic. Ash knew this, and was wondering if perhaps he should leave it and start all over again. The poem was too depressing. He wanted to include the peaceful feeling that came from watching rain slide down the window over and over again, and the smell that came when rain hit hot pavement. Gloomily, he left a few lines blank, and started to write down new words. 

"Pika, pi, chu?"

Ash looked up, startled, as Pikachu pushed his exercise book towards him. 

"'I wonder what Gary is doing.'" He read aloud. "Me too, Pikachu. Let's see..." he glanced at the TV screen set in the wall, "Weather for Azure Lake?"

"Sunny, with a few clouds appearing in the mid-late afternoon, developing into thick cloud cover by sunset," the speakers underneath recited. 

"He'll be out on the lake, then," Ash said. "Probably looking for Psychic types."

"Pikachi."

"You think I should give him a call?"

But just then, the phone rang. 

Azalea Town, Johto

It was somewhen just on the side of morning. The Water Mistress stared at her monitor, willing it to emit something…

Not even Psychic Pokémon were allowed to tag Duplika on her latest mission. She was deep inside Kanto, deep inside the Team Rocket headquarters, and wasn't even carrying any Pokémon but her damned beloved Ditto! She gives _me _a run for my money on sheer obstinacy, Misty thought, and gulped down a knot in her throat. 

Her Quagsire nudged her. "Leave me alone, Muddy," she mumbled. She didn't generally give her Pokémon nicknames, but Muddy had _refused_ to be referred to by its species designation. 

Muddy gave up on nudging her and pushed her clear off her chair. 

"Okay," whispered Misty, far too tired to protest, and curled up on the floor. As she'd known he would, the Quagsire jumped onto the chair on her place and kept watching, a sentinel to their only link with Misty's friend and fellow agent. 


	3. Ticket to Ride

Disclaimer: Pokémon is not owned by me, nor do I profit from it - except perhaps by broadening my mind and improving my writing skills, neither of which seem likely…

-Celadon Pokémon Center, Kanto (The next day)

Ash sat restlessly on the edge of his seat, nursing a Coke as he watched the door of the Pokémon Centre. This was where Gary had asked Ash to meet him. 

Pikachu, who was chatting with some of the other Pokémon in the Center, gave him a reproachful look as the pepper shaker he was fiddling with fell over with a clang. 

"Pikika cha pika," he scolded. 

"I know he's not late _yet_," Ash muttered back. Actually, if Gary had appeared at that moment, he would have been 15 minutes early. 

Not even Gary was usually that prompt, but he also didn't usually call a meeting for no reason. 

Like he had done yesterday. 

The minutes twitched by. Pikachu finished his conversation with a Growlithe when her owner collected her, and wandered back over to Ash, who was sitting by himself at one of the coffee tables. The electric mouse jumped over Ash's lap to peer out the window. 

"See anything, Pikachu?"

The weather today was Mostly Cloudy with Fine Breaks, as the Weather Channel announced from a radio in a corner of the Center. It looked just like that outside. 

For mid-morning, the traffic was normal in Celadon's Elysian Road, its main street. Tourists, buses, and couriers. Gary was nowhere in sight. 

Until a flicker of light behind him made Ash turn his head. 

"Hey, loser," said Gary, with a smirk. He looked like a kid with a new toy - he seemed to have teleported to the Center. A pair of Natu flanked him. 

"Hey, bighead," responded Ash automatically. His eyes widened. "Are _these_ the reason you wanted to see me?"

"That's right, Ketchum. And one of them's yours! Also, I got a day off, so I thought we'd go into Saffron for the day."

"Do I get to choose which one?" asked Ash eagerly. "And, Gary, why Saffron?" 

Gary shrugged. "It's about the only place we haven't gone to on one of our trips," he pointed out. "You up for it?"

"Just let me phone home."

When Ash returned from placing a call to the boarding house, Gary gave him a cryptic half-smile and dragged him off to buy tickets for the Magnet Train. 

-Viridian Forest, Johto-Kanto border

One of the Magnet Train's current passengers, Duplika, was very close to her goal. 

Her eyes narrowed as she saw the station appear through the thinning trees of the Viridian Forest. It was the end of the line for the Magnet Train. Once the express had gone all the way from Lavender Town to Olivine City, but now it stopped just before it got to Victory Road. 

With all luck, _she_ wouldn't stop, though. 

She had only her Ditto with her, in a form she hoped _no-one_ would guess. He was actually part of her face - forming a shallow film over her features that altered them just a little. If he'd tried to mimic something that wasn't alive, the scanners would have caught him; as it was, he was safe enough, he was helping her disguise, and he was extremely likely to get through. 

Now it was up to her. 

Her hair was currently dyed a natural shade of black, a sign of status. She had papers that Officer Sajen herself had made for her - and the unofficial Jenny of Morning Glory was *the* expert of anything counterfeit. 

The train slowed to a stop. Duplika waited until a porter came to help her with her bag before she got off the train. She walked with an air of capability (or tried to; it was something she had been practising) and, relieving the porter of her bag at last, slid her papers across the correct counter, and kept her face blank while the terminal staff went through them. 

This station was one of the most heavily guarded places in Kanto that still allowed public access. It was only a few kilometres from Victory Road, the border. No Kanto proletarian would have any _reason_ to be here. Her visible one, made up by Brock, was that she was a martial arts instructor sent to the Army corps south of here.

Her mission was to get out of it, without revealing the way she did it. Although a few dramatics were allowed - thankfully.

"I'm going to need to scan you for Pokémon, ma'am," the heavy security guard told her. She was only twenty metres from the outside. 

She scowled, and waved a hand, indicating that he should go ahead. Her successful facial expressions were a sign of her Ditto's competence - he had to pick up the signals from her face, and shape himself to reflect them. It was a totally new idea that _no one_ except her - the Ditto Master, as Morning Glory called her - would have been able to pull off. 

He moved the scanner up from her feet to her hair, then turned her round to face him again and moved it up to her neck. Standard procedure. 

He scanned her face and waved her through. Duplika felt weak with relief. She hadn't been sure that Ditto would fool the scans. But he had. 

He was her best and first Ditto. They'd been together for thirteen years - he had been a gift from her aunt, just before she'd been sent out of Kanto, before... Team Rocket. 

She lived with her aunt, now, in Cherrygrove City, but she had never seen her parents again. 

- Azalea Town, Johto

Misty woke to Muddy's tap and rolled over on the floor of her office. "Muddy? Any news?" she asked, rousing and groping for something to pull herself up with. 

The Quagsire nodded and pointed to the monitor. There was one message there for her. 

"Duplika?" Misty said hopefully. She pushed herself up off the floor and seated herself in the office chair. 

"What the - Professor Oak?" 

She stared. Then called. 

"Hey, Brock - come have a look at something."

She heard an affirmative from downstairs and started to skim the brief email as Brock made his way up the stairs. 

It looked like she had something to divert her from her current problem - in the shape of a new one. 

-Celadon City, Kanto

"Hope you've got money, Ash," grinned Gary nastily. "There's a bargain sale on at my favourite Saffron breeder store, and I plan to clean the place out." 

It was an hour later, and they were finally boarding the train. Ash made some appropriate comment, waiting for Gary's next action - which was to pull out a Magnemite from a Pokéball in his pocket, and wait a few seconds, Ash watching him. 

"No bugs," said Gary, in his normal voice. "Okay, Ash: we are in deep shite."


End file.
